Nearly half of Nitish's MLAs have criminal cases against them, putting a question mark on his clean leader image

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In July 2011, Ajay Singh, 35, went to meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Ajay Singh's mother Jagmato Devi, a Janata Dal (United) MLA, had died. The son wanted to contest the by-election from her constituency Daraundha in Siwan district. But the meeting took a surprise turn. Nitish told him to get married. The son said he could not marry so soon after his mother's death but the chief minister insisted. Ajay Singh was told that it was his mother's last wish and he must honour it.

JD(U) MLA Sunil Pandey

Ajay Singh returned home, unconvinced. A few weeks later, he went to Patna again. This time, Nitish was more direct. "Get married to an educated girl. Make sure she is at least 25," Ajay Singh recalls the chief minister having told him. The penny dropped. Nitish wanted the best of both worlds: He wanted to use the strongman in the by-election but without letting his tainted reputation come in the way-Ajay Singh has 30 criminal cases, including one of murder, pending against him. The deal was that his wife could be fielded as the JD(U) candidate. Ajay Singh got married on September 17, 2011-two days before poll dates were announced-ignoring that it was pitripaksh, a month considered inauspicious for matrimony. JD(U) fielded Ajay Singh's wife Kavita in the by-election on October 13, 2011. She won by over 20,000 votes.

Today, Ajay Singh attends public functions with his wife, discusses constituency issues with government officials and takes calls on the MLA's official mobile phone. Kavita Singh remains a surrogate. But she is not the only woman MLA in such a position. In Muzaffarpur's Naya Tola Khajurbanni locality, Annu Shukla operates from her red-and-white two-storey house with authority she has earned because of her marriage certificate. The walls of her house are adorned with pictures of her husband Munna Shukla, and Nitish. The ground floor drawing room doubles up as her office where she meets supporters and people in need. She promises to speak to Shukla and sometimes suggests that people with serious problems approach him directly. Shukla is serving a life sentence for masterminding the murder of former RJD minister Brijnihari Prasad but seems just a phone call away.

JD(U) MLA Anant Singh

Vijay Shankar Shukla alias Munna Shukla was a JD(U) MLA when he was convicted in August 2009.

Nitish fielded his wife Annu Shukla in the 2010 Assembly election. A long-time loyalist, Shukla had supported Nitish as an independent MLA in 2000 and then switched sides after winning the February 2005 election as an LJP candidate. Prior to his conviction, Shukla was made chairman of the Assembly's House Committee which gave him the status of a minister. JD(U) ignored the 17 criminal cases against him and fielded him from Vaishali in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Contesting as an under-trial from jail, he lost narrowly to RJD's Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

Cases and controversies notwithstanding, Shukla has been kept in Muzaffarpur jail, which apparently allows him to stay in touch with his network. In November 2011, the district administration recommended Shukla's transfer, along with 14 other inmates, to Bhagalpur Central Jail, 240 km from Muzaffarpur, following a police report about the adverse consequences of his presence there. The state prison department, under Nitish, transferred the other 14 but not Shukla. Unlike Shukla, who hopped parties and overcame political divisions to be in Nitish's camp, the Mokama donturned-JD(U) MLA Anant Singh has always been a loyal soldier. Having grown in strength in the seven-and-ahalf years of the Nitish regime, Anant Singh appears modest and keen for good press while speaking to INDIA TODAY at his official residence in Patna where he lives with 250 of his men. "I had to join politics because Lalu Prasad Yadav was trying to destroy me," he says.

JD(U) MLA Annu Shukla is the wife of Munna Shukla who is serving a life sentence in Muzaffarpur jail for masterminding the murder of RJD minister Brijnihari Prasad.

The 52-year-old don takes out notebooks to show the number of patients he has helped. Despite his efforts at cultivating a Robin Hood-like image, Anant Singh inspires fear. While most of the cases pending against him were lodged in the 1980s and 1990s, two were registered in the past seven years. In January 2008, he was accused of masterminding the murder of part-time contractor Sanjay Kumar Singh. The police did not arrest Anant Singh despite the victim's family naming him in the FIR. In the second case, involving an assault on a journalist, Anant Singh got bail.

The complete list of cases against Anant Singh is not available in the public domain. His election affidavits of 2005 and 2010 have no details of his criminal record. The affidavits refer to Annexure 2 for details of the cases pending against him. Ironically, the said annexure is missing in the records. As many as 58 of the 118 JD(U) MLAs in Bihar have criminal cases pending against them, according to affidavits submitted before they contested the 2010 Assembly polls. Of those 58, 43 MLAs have serious criminal cases against them-23 face murder charges and 35 attempt-tomurder charges. And when Nitish had to deny tickets to convicted or tainted strongmen, their better halves were fielded. So in effect, power in Bihar remains largely vested in Nitish's loyal dons, directly or by proxy. Poonam Devi Yadav, Lesi Singh, Beema Bharti and Guljar Devi are other women legislators in JD(U) who owe their political careers to their dreaded husbands.

Manoranjan Singh alias Dhumal Singh, JD(U) MLA from Ekma, has 18 cases, including four of murder, pending against him.

Poonam Devi Yadav's husband Ranbir Yadav, who was convicted in the 1985 Lakshmipur-Taufir Diara carnage in which nine people were killed, has completed his jail term. Lesi Singh is the widow of slain history-sheeter Butan Singh while Beema Bharti, a second-term legislator, started her political career under the tutelage of her now-estranged husband Awadhesh Mandal, a feared figure in the state.

Eight JD(U) ministers have criminal charges pending against them. Among them, Gautam Singh and Shyam Rajak face attempt-to-murder charges. Unlike Lalu, who promoted criminalsturned-politicians with impunity during the 15-year RJD rule, Nitish does it more discreetly. A BJP minister in the NDA government traces Nitish's soft corner for some criminal politicians to his first stint as CM for seven days in 2000. Though Nitish could not muster a majority then, he has not forgotten how independent MLAs like Manoranjan Singh alias Dhumal Singh and Munna Shukla mobilised support for him. There are 18 criminal cases against Dhumal Singh.

Again, in May 2005, when Nitish was tantalisingly close to a majority, it was LJP renegade Shukla who took MLAs from Ram Vilas Paswan's party to switch sides in favour of Nitish. The plan did not fructify because the Union Cabinet under Manmohan Singh dissolved the Bihar Assembly on May 23 that year. But Nitish did not forget to pay them back when the going got good again.